Amendment for the Work Programme 2023-2025

In April 2024 the European Commission adopted an amendment to the Horizon Europe work program for 2023-25. The amendment means adding previously unallocated funds from Horizon Europe to increase its budget for calls in 2024 and to include new calls for proposals in 2025. Hence, the budget of the current work program has increased by nearly €1.4 billion to a total of €7.3 billion.

The largest injection of additional funding will be directed to the Missions, Teaming for Excellence and HE Pillar II calls in the Clusters: Health, Climate – Energy – Transportation and Food – Bioeconomy – Natural Resources – Agriculture – Environment.

The whole Work Programme for 2023-2025 is available here.

Address of the Presidents of National Academies of Sciences of the EU Member States

Science and innovation are the essence of the European Union’s freedom and resilience, its global competitiveness and its prosperity – with such an appeal to candidates in the 2024 European Parliament elections was made by the presidents of the national academies of sciences from all 27 European Union Member States.

The signatories of the letter highlighted four key demands common to the entire scientific community of the European Union – to ensure that the European Union is a world leader in science and innovation, to promote an open and free science system, to invest in science and education and to use up-to-date scientific knowledge in policy.

– Our letter is an expression of our wish to draw the attention of decision-makers and voters to the need to maintain the Community’s current position as a global leader in in the field of science and innovation – emphasises the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Professor Marek Konarzewski. – Increasing investments in science and technology sectors, thanks to which a united Europe will be able to meet the challenges of civilisation, are essential for this. In today’s world, we consider it necessary to promote an open and free system of science and to use the knowledge and competences derived from it to make key decisions for the EU, including for Poland – he points out.

In their joint appeal, the researchers point out that our continent is now at the forefront of global research and innovation, with researchers from EU countries involved in in research and development worldwide. However, they remind us that in a changing world, it would be naive to believe that the position of European science is unshakable. In this context, stressing the need for systemic investment in science, they call for member states, as well as the EU itself, to allocate the equivalent of at least 3% of their GDP to research and development. According to the signatories of the appeal, the new EU research and innovation framework programme should also be strengthened in budgetary terms.

The heads of the national academies of science also emphasise that one of the main strengths of European science is international cooperation and the free and open exchange of knowledge and the mobility of researchers and students that serves this.

Harnessing the results of scientists’ work requires the continuous implementation of scientific achievements into policy processes. – Future challenges – including climate change and biodiversity loss, international migration, food security, energy transition – are so complex and urgent that they cannot be addressed effectively without science and a trusting dialogue between science, policy, civil society and economic actors, the appeal also reads.

IGLO in Action: Second IGLO Workshop on Lump Sum Funding Summary Report

Take a look at the summary report from the Second IGLO in Action Workshop on Lump Sum Funding collecting experiences of research managers in implementing the lump sum in Horizon Europe projects.

V4 Conference on Research Infrastructures

18 April 2024, Hotel Renaissance, Brussels

The theme of this year’s joint #V4Conference is Research Infrastructures. A number of intervening European research infrastructures (RIs), both well-established and emerging, are operating in the four Visegrad countries. The aim of the event and its accompanying discussions is to look at these examples and provide a platform for debate led by speakers coming from different countries and involved in RIs in different ways. The event is organised by the R+I support offices in Brussels (CZELO, SLORD, PolSCA, NRDIO).

The conference will enable networking among the gathered stakeholders, facilitating debate between the interested parties from the Brussels community, EU bodies and Member State representations, and the researchers themselves who use a range of different European research infrastructures. Taking into account the EU Council Conclusions on Research Infrastructures, the event will discuss, among other things, calls for Member States to ensure the long-term sustainability and digital strengthening of their research infrastructures.

Summary of V4 Training for Research Managers and Administrators – Spring 2024

11th-13th March 2024, Brussels

We have concluded the spring edition of the V4 Training for Research Project Managers, which ran from 11th to 13th March this year. Traditionally, it was a joint event organised in Brussels by the PolSCA Office together with the Czech Liaison Office for Education and Science (CZELO), the National Research, Development and Innovation Office in Hungary (NRDIO) and the Slovak Liaison Office for Research and Development (SLORD).

We hosted a total of 35 people, not only from the Visegrad Group countries but also from countries affiliated to IGLO (Informal Group of RTD Liaison Offices), with Poland being represented by 7 research managers:

Participation of Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Framework Programs of the European Union.

The Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences have secured over 50 million euros in funding in Horizon Europe programme. Research teams and scientists from more than half of PAS Institutes are involved in projects under Horizon Europe. Learn more about the participation of APS Institutes in the EU Framework Programs below.

European Partnership on Rare Diseases: State of Development

The upcoming European Partnership on Rare Diseases (RD), an initiative scheduled for launch in 2024 under Horizon Europe is rooted in collaborative research and innovation. It seeks to address the unique challenges posed by rare diseases, ultimately improving the lives of millions across Europe.

The Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences Join EBRAINS

The PolSCA Office has initiated contacts between the Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and members of EBRAINS – the European digital infrastructure for brain research. Today, we are delighted to announce that the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center affiliated with the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ICHB PAN) in Poznań has joined EBRAINS as a full member. This affiliation grants PCSS the opportunity to actively contribute to the development of research infrastructure and engage in the advancement of digital tools supporting brain research. Additionally, as of 2024, the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences has also joined EBRAINS as an Associated Member.

V4 Training for Research Project Managers – we have started the recruitment for the next edition (spring 2024)!

The call for participants for the next – already fifteenth – edition of the ‘V4 Training for Research Project Managers’ has started again! We invite research managers working in the project departments of universities, scientific and research institutes responsible for acquisition, management and reporting to Brussels (11, 12 and 13 March). Applications are being accepted until 10 January 2024!

Recap of the Focus on ERC: study visit for Polish research organizations.

We are delighted to share the success of the study visit organized by the Polish Science Contact Agency „PolSCA” of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Brussels, in collaboration with the Excellence in Science Department of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Biuro Doskonałości Naukowej, BDN PAN). This remarkable event took place from November 22-24, 2023, attracting participants from distinguished Polish research organizations eager to develop their knowledge and understanding of ERC grants and increase the capacity of their organizations in applying for those prestigious funding schemes.